Éamon de Valera ( AY-mən DEH-və-LAIR-ə, -LEER-; Irish: [ˈeːmˠən̪ˠ dʲɛ ˈwalʲəɾʲə]; first registered as George de Valero; changed some time before 1901 to Edward de Valera; 14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975) was an American-born Irish statesman and political leader. He served as the president of Ireland from 1959 to 1973, and three terms as prime minister (titled as President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State from 1932 to 1937 and as Taoiseach from 1937 to 1948, 1951 to 1954, and 1957 to 1959). He had a leading role in introducing the Constitution of Ireland in 1937, and was a dominant figure in Irish political circles from the early 1930s to the late 1960s, when he served terms as both the head of government and head of state.
De Valera was a commandant of the Irish Volunteers (Third Battalion) at Boland's Mill during the 1916 Easter Rising. He was arrested and sentenced to death, but released for a variety of reasons, including his American citizenship and the public response to the British execution of Rising leaders. He returned to Ireland after being jailed in England and became one of the leading political figures of the War of Independence. After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, de Valera served as the political leader of Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin until 1926, when he, along with many supporters, left the party to set up Fianna Fáil, a new political party which abandoned the policy of abstentionism from Dáil Éireann in favour of republicanising the Irish Free State from within.
